Cast AI characters by name — consistent faces and voices with Ask

You built Mina once: her face, her voice, the rooftop bar she keeps ending up in. Setting her up again in every tool is the tedious part — pick her from the cast, find the place, choose the voice, write the prompt. With Ask, you say her name and the setup follows.

Ask is the bar at the top of the studio home. The rule behind this guide fits in one line: characters and elements you name in a sentence join the render's cast and elements. Name a character in a voice request and her voice comes along. Below: how that plays out in each tool, the one rule that decides whether a face actually renders, and the habits that keep a cast consistent.

Say the name, get the cast

make a clip of Mina at the Rooftop bar, golden hour, vertical
→ Setting up Video · 9:16 with your parameters…

The grey line under the reply announces the setup. About a second later, Video opens with Mina in the cast, the Rooftop bar in the elements and a prompt Ask wrote from your words — in English, for the engine.

Ask only sets what you asked for. You named no engine, so the page keeps the one it is on — the last engine you used, or on a new free account Seedance 2.0 Mini, 45 credits for five seconds. Name an engine and a length, and they're set too:

make a 10-second clip of Mina at the Rooftop bar, golden hour, vertical, with Kling
→ Setting up Video · Kling 3.0 · 10 s · 9:16 with your parameters…

"Kling" means Kling 3.0, the family's standard engine — the Pro only if you say Pro. Ten seconds on it is 340 credits when you click Generate, from the Hobby plan up. On a plan that doesn't include it, Ask proposes instead of jumping: an Open Video → button, and a plan badge next to the engine. Which engine Ask picks covers the rest of the settings.

Two names, two cast members. Image works the same way:

make a square photo of Mina and Theo at the Rooftop bar
→ Setting up Image · 1:1 with your parameters…

The look sheet rule

A name only puts a face on screen if there is a face to put. A character appears in renders only once it has its look sheet, made in the character's Identity tab in Characters. Until then it is flagged Needs a look sheet, and naming it in a sentence doesn't change that.

Places and objects work the same way: a place or an object in Elements needs its look sheet before it renders. Styles need no sheet.

So the order of work is:

1. Build the character, the place or the object.
2. Make its look sheet in the Identity tab.
3. Ask for it by name.

From then on, every clip or image you ask for by Mina's name casts the same look sheet. The Elements guide covers building places, objects and styles worth reusing.

Make Mina say it

Name a character in a voice request and Voice opens with her voice:

make Mina say: "You're late. Again."
→ Setting up Voice · Mina with your parameters…

The line goes in as you wrote it. Unlike video and image prompts, a voice line is not translated into English — it keeps its language and is spoken as written. The roster voices, Aria and Orion, and your cloned voices work by name the same way:

have Orion read: "Doors open at nine. Don't be late."
→ Setting up Voice · Orion with your parameters…

When you click Generate, Voice One bills 3 credits per 100 characters and Voice Turbo 2.

One thing Ask won't fake: eroq has no lip-sync. Ask for Mina's lips to move with the line and it says so instead of pretending. The voice line is audio.

A text scene with a character

write a story with Mina: she finds a letter under her door at midnight
→ Setting up Text with your parameters…

Text opens with Mina as the character and your opening as the prompt. Each reply bills 3 credits on RP+, or 1 on RP mini.

@mentions in the bar

You don't need the @ — Ask finds names in a plain sentence. But the bar takes @mentions like the tool composers do: type @ and a list of your characters and elements opens; pick one and it goes into the sentence.

make a clip of @Mina walking into the @Rooftop bar, slow push-in
→ Setting up Video with your parameters…

A mention counts like a typed name: the character joins the cast, the element joins the elements. The list helps most when you don't remember exactly what you called something — the Rooftop bar, or was it the Roof terrace?

Ask casts a name only when you write it as one: "Rose" at the start of a word, or "@Rose" — a character called Rose stays out of "a red rose on the table". Distinct names still keep sentences unambiguous, and the cast is on the page for you to check before you click Generate.

Follow-ups keep the cast

The thread remembers what you said. After the first Mina clip:

make it 5 seconds
now as an image

Each follow-up keeps what you said earlier, so Mina and the Rooftop bar stay set. Iterating by conversation goes further. For a film, "make a short film: Mina meets Theo at the Rooftop bar" opens Cinema with a new film whose scene one is your description — from one sentence to a short film walks through it.

What casting costs

Nothing. Naming a character is part of asking, and asking is free. Ask never spends credits: it prepares the page, and Generate stays your click, with the usual credit check and plan unlock.

FAQ

Why doesn't my character appear in my AI video?

It has no look sheet yet. A character appears in renders only once its look sheet exists — made in its Identity tab — and until then it is flagged Needs a look sheet. Make the sheet, then ask again.

Do I have to type @ before a character's name?

No. Ask finds your characters and elements by name in a plain sentence. Typing @ in the bar opens a list to pick from, which helps when you don't remember exactly what you called something.

Can I make my AI character talk?

As a voice line, yes: "make Mina say …" sets up the Voice tool with her voice and your line, spoken as written. eroq has no lip-sync, and Ask tells you so rather than pretending.

Do places, objects and styles need a look sheet?

Places and objects do, exactly like characters. Styles need no sheet.

Can I cast two characters in one sentence?

Yes — name both. "Make a square photo of Mina and Theo at the Rooftop bar" puts both in the cast and the Rooftop bar in the elements; each still needs its look sheet to render.

Does casting a character with Ask cost credits?

No. Asking is free and Ask never renders. You pay when you click Generate on the page — 45 credits for five seconds on Seedance 2.0 Mini, for example.

Open Characters, give Mina her look sheet, then ask for her by name.